Author Topic: alamy and microstock (Read 7483 times)

Terry · « **on:** January 08, 2014, 11:47 »

To talk about an old subject and the evolution of the industry in general.
Nowadays, it is clear alamy and others are simply doing microstock but aren't honest enough to call it microstock. In the case of alamy, they call it "premium" or have these distribution scheme where prices and licensing are microstock oriented.
In an email that ended up public, the ceo, james west, wanted to "cannibalise microstock" with his premium scheme (laughable).

But the reality at alamy even for RM licensing is far from being ideal and now very close to prices seen on some microstock website or even lower.

For example, while the lower price displayed for a RM image for electronic use is supposed to be 15$, they can sell your picture as low as 5$ (discount to the client or screw up, you will never know).

Most of the contributors there don't make money or very little and all contributors see their work sold at discount from 50 up to 80% (even for printed publications). Again, these so called discounts are at the discretion of alamy with no control or certitude that it was a discount or simply alamy screwing you up.

A very tiny minority make a fair amount of money there, always the same people of course as it seems this company is like a small circle of "initiated" "friends" who share the benefits while the majority is just here to participate to the show.

So, anyone telling you that these companies like alamy are better, or macrostock is of a higher kind, or microstock is for amateurs, they'd better think twice, especially when you look at the quality of pictures on alamy and realize how many junk and low quality images you have there compared to microstock websites.

Last but not least, nothing is pink nowhere, be ready to experience stolen images once you sell with alamy, payment problems, and under standard prices with the cheapest excuses you can find and no consideration at all from them.

Maybe it was a good company in the apst, I don't know. But today , it really s....ks.

I'd say, it's better to make a steady income with microstock than hoping for something that will never happen with the alamys of this world.

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** January 08, 2014, 12:37 »

Still, even with the small sales, if you're selling RM it's for a particular use and I've had several instances of reuses, though usually discounted on subsequent uses. Usually earns me more than I'd have got from iS, and certainly from most (all?) of the micros for uses which wouldn't normally require an EL.
Of course, sales there are low; that's a different issue.

ShadySue · « **Reply #2 on:** January 08, 2014, 15:02 »

Also, not being in the NU scheme, I've had much smaller net amounts from Getty (via iStock), partly because of the lower percentage share.

jatrax · « **Reply #3 on:** January 09, 2014, 02:21 »

While the largest portion of my portfolio is on microstock, my relatively small RM portfolio on Alamy does well. Three sales so far this month that will net me about the same as the whole month on SS.

It is not for everyone and the market is very different, typical micro stuff does not sell well there.

grey1 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2014, 07:30 »

There are many misunderstandings regarding Getty and Alamy. With Getty the only people making serious money are the ones in the original house collection which is now seriously branching out with their new PC since all placements charges have been removed.

With Alamy and this I experienced myself. The people with thousands of editorial content are the ones making money, not much but steady.
I might be wrong but that is my experience and thats what I was told by a number of people. In the end I left Alamy. Too little in return.

wordplanet · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2014, 12:47 »

A couple of sales on Alamy for me this month so things there aren't dead even for those with ports <1000 images. Micro sites are more consistent but I've had months at Alamy where one sales earns me more than 100s of sales on the micros. And months where a couple of RM sales just earns me peanuts. Not that I'm tooting their horn, sales there for me are far fewer and for less $ than they were a couple of years ago. It's not for everyone. Your rank is a combination of your zooms and sales there, so, just as with the micros, searches favor photos and portfolios that sell more often.

I'm not on Getty but I know some people in the Getty Flikr deal who are making high 5 figures part time from just Getty Flikr (i.e. people with a full time job outside of photography).

Stock photo income for nearly everyone - macro and micro - is down these days. (I mean photographers, not their agencies).

I think this blog on DT that Steve Allen, who's been shooting stock for 20+ years, wrote last year, has a good analysis of where things stand in both markets. The comments and his replies are instructive too. http://blog.dreamstime.com/2013/06/04/my-view-on-shooting-for-stock_art39079

Competition is fierce, the global economy is iffy, and supply is outpacing demand. That's a problem for both micro and macrostock. We all have to adapt and find our niche.

Ron · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2014, 13:16 »

I had 1 sale per month and regular zooms on 400 images. It all went slow but okish. And 6 months ago it stopped dead. I had one 4$ net sale in December and thats it. I see a lot of people complaining, people with over 10k ports. ANd I cant spray and pray. Its not my thing. These people work in quantity not quality and its all unedited. James convinced me to stay on back then, but my next email to Alamy will be to close my account.

stockastic · « **Reply #7 on:** January 24, 2014, 13:30 »

Alamy died for me as well. I no longer even check it.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #8 on:** January 24, 2014, 13:40 »

I still get sales there - $100 nett so far this month from 4k images. That's still ahead of anything but the "top tier" in my stats. I'm probably doing better than some on Alamy because I shoot what I feel like without just sticking to traditional "microstock" stuff. Well, mostly I do stick to simple food stuff, but sometimes I don't.

Maybe I'm too lazy and rough round the edges to ever have had a hope of making a fortune at MS, but the reverse of the coin might be that I'm not so smooth and commercial that I wreck my chances at Alamy.

stocked · « **Reply #9 on:** January 24, 2014, 13:57 »

Considering the market I'm still doing okay with Alamy. And my best sellers there are non-released images, stuff that is really hard to sell let alone get approved elsewhere. I had a pretty good RF-sale last month from one of my RF-images that I have on Alamy and the micros, it got refunded a few days later. It was obvious to me that the buyer found the same image at SS and therefore claimed refund at Alamy.
Alamy is the place for editorial and in this market they are still hundred times better than any micro-agency. For released RF-images I wouldn't waste my time with them anymore especially if it's also available at the micros.

Ariene · « **Reply #10 on:** January 24, 2014, 18:04 »

Quote from: Ron on January 24, 2014, 13:16

... my next email to Alamy will be to close my account.

Am I right that you tried to close your account in Nov. 2013 last time? And they say that women don't know what they want to

arkadia56 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 24, 2014, 18:29 »

It looks like Alamy main clients are UK newspapers (like the Guardian) and that the main sales are electronic ones for few $, even for RM collections.

Occasionally, you'd get higher sales over 50 or 100$ but it become rarer. The competition is really tough and the world is saturated with images for sale. Bigger players get bigger shares of the market although asking for exclusivity (Getty) or with unacceptable T&C sometimes (Corbis).

My guess is that the best photographers don't sell well, the connected ones do, in stock as in other areas. If you know what the editor wants next month it's suddenly more easy to produce the right shot.

Today, these agencies are at 50% commissions, what for next year ? 60% for them, 40 for contributors ? This is the way it goes...

Ron · « **Reply #12 on:** January 24, 2014, 19:07 »

Quote from: Ariene on January 24, 2014, 18:04

Quote from: Ron on January 24, 2014, 13:16
... my next email to Alamy will be to close my account.
Am I right that you tried to close your account in Nov. 2013 last time? And they say that women don't know what they want to

Did you read the first part of that sentence?

DaivRawks · « **Reply #13 on:** January 28, 2014, 20:29 »

I'm new to trying to put my photography up for sale as stock, but it seems like Alamy is a great place to avoid. Thanks for the head's up.

ShadySue · « **Reply #14 on:** January 28, 2014, 20:41 »

Quote from: DaivRawks on January 28, 2014, 20:29

I'm new to trying to put my photography up for sale as stock, but it seems like Alamy is a great place to avoid. Thanks for the head's up.

There are plenty worse than Alamy, but you can read all about them here.

Mantis · « **Reply #15 on:** January 28, 2014, 20:47 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 28, 2014, 20:41

Quote from: DaivRawks on January 28, 2014, 20:29
I'm new to trying to put my photography up for sale as stock, but it seems like Alamy is a great place to avoid. Thanks for the head's up.
There are plenty worse than Alamy, but you can read all about them here.

True. Sales are so unpredictable on Alamy, though, that I take my annual income from them and divide by 12 then apply that to my monthly totals. In 2012 my keepable average was $240 a month. in 2013 it was $120, literally a 50% drop. I expect to see more decline on Alamy as they keep trying to compete with microstock pricing and have essentially little quality control on uploads, so there's a constant funnel of mass images being uploaded daily then their image search has to sift through a crap load of poor keywords (because they don't check keywords either).

Rinderart · « **Reply #16 on:** February 01, 2014, 18:26 »

I agree. and the upload process is just ...well, Stupid.

grey1 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 02, 2014, 01:32 »

Uploading creative and typical stock to an agency which mainly deals with the editorial markets, well....... not too clever is it.

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Author Topic: alamy and microstock (Read 7483 times)

Terry

ShadySue

ShadySue

jatrax

grey1

wordplanet

Ron

stockastic

BaldricksTrousers

stocked

Ariene

arkadia56

Ron

DaivRawks

ShadySue

Mantis

Rinderart

grey1

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